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As part of Be Your Own Beloved, I’m inviting the participants to take a photo for each day of class…as it takes 28 Days to instil a new habit. The habit we’re exploring being turning the camera on ourselves and cultivating a practice of looking at ourselves with kindness.
So in preparation for class, I’ve been taking a photo every day this month.
While taking self-portraits feels like a habit already for me and I take them almost every day to check in with myself, to tell the story of the day and to document some beauty I found….I wanted to see what would happen on those days I might have normally skipped. What the in between days would tell me about this journey. What the commitment to the process would feel like.
I wanted to show up in the feelings that might arise (and they did) and experience exactly what I’m asking the participants to do.
Years ago I did a 365 day challenge and definitely helped solidify my love of taking selfies as a regular act, but it had been a long time since those days. I wanted to challenge myself to take one on those days when it had been too rainy and grey to take a photo outside or on days that I simply forgot until just before bed.
To be honest with you…some of what I discovered surprised me, mainly the rhythm of creating this new habit and it gave me some beautiful new insights that I’m adding to Be Your Own Beloved to honour that flow.
Here’s what happened:
The first few days were beautiful and exciting. I felt inspired and had big plans for the month of selfies. By Day 4 (I know…already) I was rethinking the whole idea of doing one every day (not really of course, but this is the reaction I was having…and I think the participants are likely to as well). I wanted to stop! Once I pushed past those few days, I got why I wanted to stop….because I was indeed creating a habit of doing one every single day and our bodies/minds naturally have resistance to it.
After I got through that first week it just felt like I was flowing with the journey. It just became a part of my life each day and I stopped feeling resistance to it. That didn’t mean that some days I would totally forget, but on those days I actually made some great discoveries I’m sharing in the class…as those times were opportunities to really be the narrator of the story I wanted to tell of that day and tried to embody the feeling of that day in the photo.
It was a beautiful adventure and I’m excited to continue along this month ahead with the participants in Be Your Own Beloved…and I’m kind of in awe that it feels like the lessons I can learn from taking self-portraits keeps unfolding.
I also wanted to share the photos with you. Every one of them.
Many days were taken with the iPhone, some on photo walks as I went along my daily adventures in life. Others (mainly all of those black and white or clearly indoor photos) were taken with my iphone usually in the evening when it just hadn’t happened to manifest any other photo during the day…or when I forgot!
I wanted to share these with you in case you’re nervous about joining in for Be Your Own Beloved and wondering what 28 days of self-portraiture might look for you. I want to tell you that they can look like anything you want them to.
Of course I’ll be giving you daily inspiration and guidance along the way so you won’t have to pull an idea out of a hat for your photos!
I wanted to share with you all the ways that we can be in our selfies: our hands, our feet, our faces, our whole bodies, parts of ourselves, even our shadows. There is no right or wrong way to take a self-portrait!
I also truly believe that there is no one kind of self-portrait that is more worthy than another. The tips of your toes or your shadow is just as powerful in telling your story as a full body photo…they are all expressions of you on this path to self-kindness.
Be Your Own Beloved starts soon and it is such a powerful way to spend a month that is so focused on external love. Let’s cultivate self-love this February!
So here is a glimpse of what 28 days looked like for me. Just me showing up in the rythmn and story of this month in my life. The first 3 days are above and the rest of them (in order) are below:
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